What happens if there is an electoral college tie?
Election day has come and gone in the US, and in the early hours of Nov. 4—no matter what the candidates are claiming—it’s still impossible to say who will be the US next president.
There are many scenarios open—including contested results—and the US constitution isn’t clear about resolving all of the possible challenges. One unlikely scenario does, however, have an answer: An electoral college tie must be broken by Congress.
This is how it works. There are 538 electoral college seats in the US, which means that in order to win the presidency, a candidate has to get 270. It is possible, however, that when the electoral college meets to cast its votes on the Monday after the second Wednesday of December (this year, that’s Dec. 14), each candidate gets 269.
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